A Pug's Journey (Cultivation Starts with Breathing)

Ex moved invisibly around the ruined area as a silent, untouchable specter observing the chaos. Shards of rock, high-pressure water, and clumps of damp earth were still flying from everywhere, yet none of the debris so much as grazed him.

Each chunk of stone or burst of water passed harmlessly through Ex's form. In his spectral state, he had neither mass nor presence; the world's physical convulsions simply ignored him.

Below, Aephelia—code name Wer—conjured water after water, crashing them against the Godbeast's giant body to push it back or restrain it. Ex watched with arms folded behind his back as though he was on a stroll.

He noted every detail: the Godbeast's muscled limbs tearing gouges in the ground, the way Wer wasn't fighting the way she usually would.

"She's holding back?" Ex murmured under his breath, though no one could hear him in this immaterial form. It wasn't a question, more of an analytical observation. In the centuries he'd known Wer, he had rarely seen her fight with such restraint.

Wer was a force of nature, literally. As a being tied to water, she had previously summoned tsunamis in battle, split entire lakes with a flick of her wrist. Yet here she was, facing a rampaging Godbeast, and using only mild, controlled blasts of water and defensive maneuvers.

'Why isn't she unleashing her full strength?' Ex wondered, perplexed. A creature of this caliber, Phase-5, was just a trivial threat.

Wer could have encased it in a prison of ice or used higher-pressure water projectiles by now, possibly even incapacitated it outright. Instead, she was behaving almost… carefully. Protective, even.

Ex found that exceedingly odd. There was concern etched on her face beneath her usual sporadic expressions.

She was worried about it, about hurting the Godbeast.

Ex's mind churned through the possibilities with methodical precision even as the battle raged on. Perhaps Wer knew this creature? It wasn't unheard of; Godbeasts often had offspring or bloodlines tied to specific lands.

Wer had worked in Sunmire not long ago, if he recalled correctly.

Could she have encountered this being back then? The notion might explain her reluctance now.

He sighed internally. Compassion. Both weakness and a strength. Ex would never fault her empathy, after all, he himself cared for this world in his own way.

Ex observed this fight with detached, scientific interest.

"Stubborn," Ex muttered, a wry smirk tugging at his lips. That single word applied equally to both combatants. The stubborn beast who refused to give in, and the stubborn woman refusing to deal a killing blow.

The thought carried him a step further than he meant to let it. The organization, Letters, had that effect. Throughout the years, members fell and rose. Currently, there were seventeen main Letters. Existence for him. Water for her.

Although Ex had lived long enough to see courts change and countries change borders, he was still one of the newer members.

Eventually, his thoughts snapped shut when he heard Wer shout, "Ex! Now!"

Ex shed his ability and took on a physical form. The world acknowledged him again. And so, he moved.

As Wer held the Godbeast in place, Ex stepped in at the angle that let him reach the softest spot, a fresh wound.

Ex pushed the needle in and pressed the plunger down in one smooth motion. Clear liquid went in.

The Godbeast's forequarters lowered first, then the hips. And its muzzle found the ground with a rough thud. Water peeled away in narrow threads as Wer released her hold on him..

Ex watched the chest. Rise. Fall. And slow down.

"Steady," he said under his breath. He flexed his wrist and looked at the tear on the sleeve. A shallow graze that he didn't notice. "Almost had my arm. Very rude."

With it finally falling unconscious, Ex took a good look at the creature.

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The head was too big for that muzzle. In fact, the muzzle itself was flattened in a weird manner. The eyes sat wider apart than comfort allowed. The ears looked like it failed to decide a shape, half pointed and half round, so both looked wrong. Then there was the tail, it curled above its buttocks in a very weird manner.

"He's extremely weird-looking," he said. "Are you sure this is Sunmire's Godbeast and not a Gromstel from the Demonic Lands dressed for a festival?"

"We've met before," she said. "Back in Sunmire, he was so much smaller and lovable back then. He was on an adventure away from home."

Ex did his usual routine and studied the environment again, the way he always did after an event like this.

And he was amazed.

There was nothing. The absence of mana everywhere pleased him more than it should have.

Ex flicked his hand and drew a second object from an inner pocket, a crystal the size of a small lemon. He passed it slowly over the Godbeast's shoulder and along the jawline, then paused to follow the ribs with the same unhurried, careful sweep. The crystal remained dull.

Ex leaned closer, not enough to tempt those impressive teeth if the animal chose to wake badly.. "Nothing from him either," he said, not surprised now that he had named the lack once. "No mana at all."

He ran it over the Godbeast again to ensure there were no problems, and still, no mana.

Even the strike that seemed invisible earlier didn't show any signs of mana.

Wer did not take her eyes off him while she drew the communicator. Her voice stayed low and even.

It was the usual stuff, a status report.

Wer placed the communicator on hold.

"Support will be here soon," she said.

"They'll have a field day with this," Ex answered. He didn't hide the pleasure in his voice. "There's no mana in the air and no mana in him. He's almost like us."

Ex stood and scanned the whole block again. Devastation all around, almost as if a flood had hammered into the entire area. Gouges here and there from the fight, and a giant Godbeast that didn't look one.

The head remained a size too large for that muzzle. In fact, the muzzle was broad and flat, as if purposefully flattened. Its body was also broad and very… ungraceful. Very unlike Sunmire's usual Godbeasts.

Wer looked back at the Godbeast with care in her eyes.

But Ex was thinking of something completely different.

A new form of energy. That was the only conclusion that fit.

Something outside the usual spectrum, strong enough to strengthen a body and emit an invisible force.

Out of habit, he thought about the rules that mattered.

The Three Laws: no exploding powder, no single-core mechanized constructs, and no burning water in large quantities.

Publicly, the story had always been that their organization, a so-called secret society, took the hard road and caused a continent's fall for violating the Three Laws. It was enough to evoke fear and prevent another disaster from happening again.

Half of the original Letters had come from the Tenth Continent.

Not just survivors—engineers, artificers, architects of failure. They had seen where ambition went when the wrong tools were given to the wrong people. And when the continent cracked and folded in on itself, they hadn't needed convincing.

They had written the bans themselves.

There had been no media surge to fight. No one thought to ask why a guild was being formed across five continents seemingly out of nowhere. They had a reasonable excuse after all, minimizing dungeon casualties and regulating artifacts.

Ex had not been there at the beginning, but he knew from the private records when he took his letter. The Adventurer's Guild had been born half from vision and half from regret.

If they could harness whatever this Godbeast was using… maybe then…

With these thoughts in mind, Ex saw the unconscious Godbeast as both threat and opportunity. The scientist in him tingled at the possibilities—an energy unknown, something that was different from the laws of mana. Yet the strategist whispered caution. The last time power had gotten out of control, a continent folded in on itself.

He adjusted his gloves, looking up at the half-dark sky. "A new fuel, or a new bomb," he said quietly.

Wer crouched beside the creature's massive head, her communicator pressed to her ear. The faint metallic hum of its rune carried in the air. Ex could not hear what they were talking about, but he basically knew what they needed right now..

She was likely requesting containment and the artifact capable of transmutation.

An artifact that turns beasts into humans. It was getting popular these days, especially at a certain continent where they used it enmasse to create free labor.

The Godbeast exhaled faint steam through its nostrils. Even unconscious, it radiated life in quiet pulses. Each breath displaced pebbles around its muzzle.

"He's thirteen feet tall," Wer murmured into her comm. "We can't move it without anyone seeing this big lug paraded around. Yes…"

She still continued talking.

But Ex tilted his head. The beast's chest expanded deeper this time. Ex's eyes narrowed.

"Wer," he warned.

But she didn't turn. She was still listening for confirmation through the communicator.

The Godbeast's tail twitched once. Then its eyes opened.

No sound came as the massive head lunged forward faster than its bulk should have allowed.

Ex moved, but too late. The jaws closed around Wer from the shoulders up.

A clean bite.

Silence followed. And only the dull crack of impact and the soft thump of Wer's body falling backward, headless, into the mud. The communicator slipped from her hand, landing beside her.

Ex stood perfectly still. The Godbeast's jaw froze mid-chew.